With the advent of the computer age, business enterprises and other organizations utilize project management software for scheduling tasks and allocating resources over the course of a project (i.e., a set of activities of finite duration). For example, modern project management application programs assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources (e.g., people, equipment, and materials) to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads. Each resource can be assigned to multiple tasks in multiple plans and each task can be assigned multiple resources. Tasks are scheduled based on the resource availability as defined in resource calendars. In short, project management application programs greatly facilitate the management of projects in an organization.
In order for multiple users to access the contents of a single project, modern project management application programs also include a collaboration component for accessing a shared project over a computer network so that multiple users may modify different sections of a project simultaneously. For example, a user may access a shared project to update areas the user is personally responsible for. The collaboration component is implemented on a server in a client-server computer network. In the network, a server stores project data in a central database. Users may view, retrieve, and modify server project data from a conventional desktop or laptop computer (i.e., a client computer) by connecting to the server over the network.
Problems occur, however, when project files retrieved from the server are modified offline by users without a connection or access to the server. For example, a project manager may e-mail a project file to an employee in a remote office to add tasks to a project on which both are working. The remotely located employee does not have access to the server's central database. The remotely located employee modifies the project file (e.g., adds projects tasks) and then e-mails the modified file back to the project manager. In current project management application programs, project files modified offline may not be integrated into an existing project but may only be saved as new project files. As a result, a single project file may be associated with numerous additional project files representing minor modifications to an existing project.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.